Education Manager

Description Organization Overview

Cantigny, stewarded by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, is a signature cultural and recreational destination in Chicago’s western suburbs. With nearly 500 acres of gardens, museums, programs, and golf, Cantigny offers an exceptional platform for community engagement and storytelling.

The Education Manager leads Cantigny’s development and delivery of educational programs that interpret military history for students, families, and educators. This role is responsible for creating engaging learning experiences that use historical content to advance social science, civic, and STEM education, promote critical thinking, and advance Cantigny’s mission to support an informed and engaged population. The Education Manager oversees school programs, out-of-school youth learning initiatives, family programs and activities, teaches professional development, and supervises full-time, part-time, and volunteer education team members.

The position requires a creative and collaborative team member, with ambitious vision, organized execution, and diligent evaluation and learning skills to connect youth, families, educators, and peer institutions to advance learning. This role collaborates extensively with other departments, especially the First Division Museum and the Guest Services, McCormick House, Horticulture, and Forestry teams. The role will work closely with these teams to set and integrate educational goals into exhibitions, displays, and other installations and collaborate with the Marketing team on outreach and promotion.

• Design, implement, and evaluate curriculum-aligned initiatives, such as field trips, virtual programs, history trucks, primarily for middle school (grades 5–8) and high school audiences (grades 9–12).
• Design, implement, and evaluate programs for Scouts and Girl Scouts.
• Create age-appropriate, inquiry-based interpretive experiences that support critical thinking, historical knowledge, and civic engagement.
• Ensure educational content is historically accurate, and programs are aligned with state and national standards.
• Ensure programs are accessible to schools and students that may face challenges engaging with educational offerings. Oversee transportation scholarship program to help reduce local barriers to participation.

• Design, implement, and evaluate professional development workshops, institutes, and in-service training for teachers.
• Develop educator resources including lesson plans, primary source sets, pre- and post-visit materials, and digital learning tools.
• Provide ongoing support for teachers and educators, including curriculum consultation, classroom visits (as appropriate), and instructional coaching related to military history and civic education.
• Build and maintain a robust network of local educators and serve as a primary point of contact for educators, school districts, and educational partners.

• Design, implement, and evaluate family programs that encourage hands-on learning and intergenerational engagement.
• Plan and lead programs tied to Cantigny exhibitions, commemorations, and annual themes.
• Ensure daily drop-in programs and family activities are consistently staffed, well-prepared, and responsive to visitor needs.
• Collaborate with Guest Services team to promote programs and encourage public use.

• Recruit, train, schedule, supervise, and evaluate educators.
• Develop facilitation guides, lesson plans, and educator toolkits.
• Build and maintain a collaborative, ambitious, and mission-driven education team.
• Manage and grow the corps of volunteer docents that support educational programs.

• Develop and deploy evaluation tools to assess learning outcomes for students, families, and educators.
• Collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data to inform program improvements.
• Contribute evaluation findings to reports for leadership and other internal and external stakeholders.

• Manage education program budgets and track expenses.
• Support grant applications and reporting…